Competition ,, My Vision of the Clean and Sustainable Transport in Vilnius, Lithuania Background and objectives: The main objective

of the initiative was to promote the bicycle network and the footpaths, to save energy and to lay the basis for new community traditions. The promotion of a cleaner and quieter environment will help re-discover cities and their heritage. The organisers intention was to offer such activities that would not tire people but encourage them to participate in the whole programme. Therefore it was of primary importance to select appropriate places for the events. The best venues are considered those that are located in the centre of the city, the places favoured by the inhabitants for free time activities. The events organised in such places tend to attract more people, they do not create conditions for social exclusion. Due to these considerations, Vilnius Healthy City Bureau selected central squares as a venue of the events. Implementation: In February - April 2008, Vilnius Healthy City Bureau arranged a competition of presentations called ,,My vision of clean and sustainable transport.
The pupils of the secondary schools and informal education were invited to take part in the competition. They were divided into two age groups: pupils of the age of 1215 years and pupils of the age of 1618 years. They could choose either individual or group work. The presentation had to be in a Power Point format, the delivery time was not to exceed 20 minutes. Every presentation had a title, the authors name, school and form, and the name of the supervising teacher. All the schools were informed in writing about the terms and rules of the competition. A commission was set up to assess the works according to the following criteria: authenticity, topicality, creativity, originality and general literacy. The pupils put forward a lot of interesting ideas regarding the best means of transport and ways of saving energy: riding bicycles, replacing petrol by bio fuels, constructing bypasses to prevent traffic jamsincities,sharingcarswithneighboursandotherinterestingmeasures.

An obstacle was insufficient access to computers: not all pupils have computers at home, therefore the meeting of one of the requirements to prepare a PowerPoint presentation caused problem. Conclusions: 108 schools took part in the competition. The total number of the participants was 550. The feedback on ,,My vision towards the clean and sustainable transport competition has revealed the following: 90 % of the participants say they would recommend taking part in such events to their friends; The question if the presentations demonstrated by the young speakers were meaningful and effective was positively answered by 82 per cent of the respondents.

Danguole Vaitkiene , Vilnius Healthy City Bureau, Vilnius Municipality, Konstitucijos pr. 3, LT-09601, Vilnius, Lithuania; Phone number +370 69878786, e-mail: danguolev@post.omnitel.net